The present invention relates to an improved hanger assembly for fill strips of the type used in cooling towers to facilitate heat transfer and consequent cooling of the liquid passing downwardly through the tower.
In typical cooling tower constructions, the hot liquid to be cooled gravitates downwardly through the cooling tower and is removed as cooled liquid from the bottom thereof. Air is circulated in the tower and the cooling is accomplished by heat transfer from the surface of the liquid to the circulating air. The cooling is basically accomplished by evaporation from the surface of the liquid droplets, and the rate of cooling is determined by the rate or velocity of air flow through the tower and by the time required for the free or gravity fall of the liquid through the tower, with a longer retention time of the liquid during such fall obviously increasing the total heat transfer to the circulated air.
In order to increase the exposure time of the liquid to the air, it is well known in the art to provide means extending generally transversely in the tower which form surface areas onto which the liquid falls resulting in liquid splash and the consequent breakup into liquid particles. The greater the breakup due to such splashing, the greater the exposure time of the liquid particles to the air being circulated, and consequently the greater is the heat transfer and cooling. The transversely extending members are normally referred to as fill strips, and various types of fill strips and supporting hangers for the same are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,749,381 to Donn B. Furlong, et al; 3,791,634 to Peter M. Phelps and 3,894,127 to Homer E. Fordyce. The disclosure of each of these patents is characterized by a particular form of fill and means for supporting or suspending the fill in the tower, or both. U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,634 makes reference to a conventional cooling tower in which a number of horizontally disposed slats, which are normally of wood construction, are secured in staggered rows one above the other by means of wires. The staggering results in the liquid necessarily gravitating from one slat to a laterally positioned slat therebelow so that the liquid drops through a discontinuous path, with the exposure time of the liquid in the tower being determined by the vertical spacing of the adjacently disposed and staggered slats.
Although U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,634 refers to the supporting of the slats by wires, there are various methods known in the art for supporting the fill strips, and all supporting methods presently known to applicant are characterized by being relatively expensive, with respect to either material costs or time consuming installation requirements. Although wire mesh has been used for supporting the fill slats, present techniques for mounting the wire mesh are undesirable and very labor intensive. It will be understood that at least two supports or hangers are required for each slat in order to support the slats in at least two locations, and the fill hangers or supports are frequently spaced approximately two feet apart thereby necessitating even greater installation time, depending of course on the diameter or transverse dimension of the cooling tower.